Because chickens and the gardens are established, I want to move on to my next project this winter: keeping honey bees. There are currently no ordinances against bees in Durham. I also figure with a lot of gardens and trees in my area, that they should have plenty of opportunities to look for pollen. And, it would be interesting to see what sort of honey they would produce.

Does anyone raise them? Where did you get your equipment? How about the queen and workers?

9/25/2010 11:23:31 AM

if I were your next door neighbor I would invest in cans of Raid.

9/25/2010 11:32:31 AM

Might want to check if any of your neighbors are deathly allergic to bees before proceeding with this.

9/25/2010 1:08:51 PM

i've had bees in town w/ no problems.
wait until spring to get your bees, take the winter to build the hives and frames. When you put foundation in the frames use real bees wax not the bs plastic stuff the bees don't like it.
learn how to check for parasites and what affects bees.
when you're choosing a place to put the hives choose a place that gets the first light and the longest light of the day.

9/25/2010 1:38:07 PM

i'm rather interested in beekeeping, but i'm also interested in not being stung. so, i'll prolly continue to rely on ht for my honey

9/25/2010 1:47:59 PM

just wear your gloves and jacket, you wont get stung. we bought our stuff from brushy mountain bee farm, they are a good supplier and are here in NC. Dont buy a cheap smoker, get the better one. Join the NC Beekeepers assn, tons of knowledge and help to be had.

9/25/2010 4:25:52 PM

Check out ENT 203?

9/25/2010 6:30:01 PM

^ I'm an alumna. Classes at NC State not really an option at this point.

Not like I want to feed the trolls on this topic, but I have thought about the whole getting stung thing. I'm not sure what the significant difference between me having a hypothetical random hive in my backyard, and keeping a domestic hive intentionally would do for people who are allergic (which is a very small portion of the population). They'd have more to fear, statistically, from a dog bite or a car accident.

But yeah, thanks for the real responses. Keep em coming. Do you have any pics of your hives? How far do you normally place the hive away from the house?

9/25/2010 11:12:15 PM

It's important to greet them each day with your best falsetto "HELLO LADIES!"

9/26/2010 12:00:40 AM

This topic is relevant to my interests.


So, you wait until spring? On average, how much time per day does it take to keep bees?

9/26/2010 1:52:07 AM

i've got one hive that was new this past spring since my hive last year was weak from the start...seems like last year was a relatively bad year since i know several people whose new hives died off

this year's hive has been crazy strong

9/26/2010 7:36:03 AM

i took a class on beekeeping through wake county ag extension. might wanna look for something like that. the tome we used is called "the hive and the honey bee" and it's like the bee bible.

9/26/2010 9:01:38 AM

^ I have that book! it's. . THE BEES KNEES

But yeah I am a honeybee enthusiast, I am interested to see where this thread goes. I enjoyed my bees and beekeeping class

9/26/2010 4:24:45 PM

paging Firebreather.

9/26/2010 4:27:25 PM

A book by Dadant( the guy, not the supply company) is also really good. Right now we are feeding our bees a sugar syrup because there isn't much stuff blooming now, its hot and they are all staying around the hive. They are a little more grumpy this time of year so we don't mess around out there any more than necessary. Paint your hives any colors but black and red, we just cleaned out the old paint we had left from several painting projects. The time required varies from season to season. Harvesting honey takes a good days work but that is only once or maybe twice a year. The rest of the time you are just watching for pests, overcrowding, feeding when needed, filling up your waterer and a few other things. Requeening and splitting hives can also be on the list of things to do. Depending on your hives you may or may not have to do that. I took an intro to bee keeping class at the community college near home and really liked it, look for something like that or a local bee keepers club. you can score bees and equipment through there. Its not hard to do but you can let it get more time consuming than it has to be by noobing around. Learn from some old guys that have done it the hard ways.

9/26/2010 9:45:26 PM

Do y'all eat the comb honey? Or do you use an extractor to get more liquidy goodness? How much honey can I expect a healthy hive to make per screen thing?

9/26/2010 10:55:54 PM

Quote :

"just wear your gloves and jacket, you wont get stung"

don't count on that, i've been stung through the suits more than once. you will get stung, accept it. i've gotten to the point where i don't use a suit on a standard day in the hive, and rarely get stung, once you can read the bees. if you're gonna be in the hive for a while or being really invasive go ahead and suit up.

9/26/2010 11:29:39 PM

I am considering getting into this as well, but it is pretty expensive to start up. My girlfriend's uncle keeps bees, so I am hoping he will "donate" a couple hives to the cause. I will definitely add this thread to my topics and add to it as I learn the tricks of the trade

9/27/2010 12:19:21 AM

My grandfather had several hives up in the mountains of South Carolina back when I was little, and I was always a bit afraid of them back then. It's cool that we have so many wolfwebbers with such diverse interests, I always enjoy seeing threads like this.

9/27/2010 2:04:06 AM

we dont do comb honey, I have friends that do but I dont like messing up the comb. We feed the hell out of them and averaged over 50lbs per hive ( body, 4 shallow 10 frame supers). Last year we didnt get nearly as much. Timing has a big impact. We have an extractor and a hot decapping knife.

9/27/2010 9:06:31 PM

50 lbs per hive? What do you do with it all?
Mead? Christmas presents? Put it in everything possible to eat it??

I was thinking I might get 10 lbs if I was lucky. What is the average output do you think for a beginner keeper?

9/27/2010 9:33:09 PM

for anyone with established hives producing alot of honey I am interested in buying whatever is extra that you might not be able to use.

9/27/2010 10:51:52 PM

When is the best time to start a new hive? I think I have secured everything I will need.

9/27/2010 10:58:02 PM

a place i used to work at had a swarm of bees take up residence in the wall. the worst part was the smell. I don't know if the honey turned rancid in the wall or its normal for a hive to have a strong sour odor, but it may be something to consider. but the bees themselves weren't aggressive at all. sometimes a hundred bees would find their way into the office. eventually we called a bee keeper to come lure the queen out and the bees left.

/cool story

[Edited on September 28, 2010 at 12:11 AM. Reason : .]

[Edited on September 28, 2010 at 12:11 AM. Reason : wow.]

9/28/2010 12:10:40 AM

Check out: http://www.wakecountybeekeepers.org/

They offer classes for beginners. If you are a member of the club you can also borrow equipement from others. As well as, they will tell you were to stuff you need.

If you don't live in Wake Co, check out:

http://www.ncbeekeepers.org/

You can also take Bees and Beekeeping Via NC State Distance as a Post-Baccalaureate Studies student.


http://distance.ncsu.edu/courses/course-details.php?id=ENT:203::601:FALL:2010

9/28/2010 12:30:08 AM

A healthy hive smells like honey, very clean and crisp. A bad odor can come from a disease called american foul brood or if the bees are working Astor blossoms, both are pretty bad. Astor blossom scents will dissipate as the honey is worked by the bees and is a perfectly good product, you can eat it and never know it. We pack our honey in 1lb plastic jars that we get from brushy mountain. 1 lb of of honey is 12 fluid ounces. We sold some at a farmers market for $7.50, local folks get a better price.

9/30/2010 9:07:21 PM